As 800 Wayne County jail detainees suffer in below-freezing temperatures with no heat, thousands of bundled up people attend X-mas Tree lighting, other holiday events only a few blocks away in downtown Detroit.
Heat at old Wayne County Jail out again since weekend, after previous outage Nov. 28.
Officials have not provided additional blankets, heaters, or access to outer clothing through family visits
Virtual visits must now be scheduled ahead of time
Hundreds of jail detainees have been held without trial for up to 4 years
By Diane Bukowski
December 19, 2022
Darrell Ewing and co-defendant Derrico Searcy have been held in Wayne County Jail since June of 2020, after Kym Worthy claimed she planned to re-try them despite COA ruling overturning their convictions. Hundreds of others in the jail have been held up to 4 yrs. awaiting trial.
“It’s 10 a.m. in here, and you can’t hear a soul,” Darrell Ewing, a detainee at the old Wayne County Jail Division II since June, 2020, told VOD today. “That’s because the heat has been off since Friday, and everyone is staying in bed, huddled up under one thin cotton blanket, in thin jumpsuits, trying to stay warm.”
Temperatures are supposed to drop by Xmas weekend to highs of 19 degrees, according to weather reports.
Jail officials have not ordered additional blankets for detainees, provided electric heaters or other sources of heat, or told them when the heat would be back up, he said. The jail stocks extra blankets which are used during “shake-downs” of cells, but taken back immediately afterward.
“Freezing air keeps flowing in through the wall vents from the outside, and they haven’t turned it off,” Ewing reported.
Ewing recalled that after the heat went out for three days Nov. 28, Chief of Jails Robert Dunlap promised detainees there that he would call out a a crew immediately if it happened again.
The jail website reports that the old jail at 525 Clinton has a 770-bed capacity, but detainees have reported that new arrivals are forced to sleep on the floor in many cases. Seventy-five percent of the detainees are Black, most between the ages of 18 and 35.
These officials supervise conditions in the Wayne County Jail. Judge Kenny is head of a task force created in 1971 to address conditions at the jail. They are defendants in a new federal lawsuit filed by 11 detainees in June, 2022.
Detainees report that in-person family visits, despite initially being allowed recently, are not now allowed, contradicting the website at: Inmate Visitation | Sheriff Connect – Wayne County Michigan. Detainees have no coats or other outerwear to put on over their thin jumpsuits.
Wayne County Jail Cell/DFP photo
Ed Foxworth
VOD contacted Ed Foxworth, Chief of Communications for Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington’s office, and Chief of Jails Dunlap this morning to ask if families could schedule emergency visits to bring warm coats for their loved ones, and for information about restoration of the heat, but had not heard back by the end of the day.
Families and friends of the detainees used to be able to contact them for virtual visits on demand, but the Telmate site sponsoring the visits is now allowing only visits scheduled ahead of time, creating further problems for them.
Ewing and other detainees at the Wayne County Jail updated their lawsuit against the jails’ top cops Dec. 5, filing for expedited review of the case after waiting for five months to see progress on the suit. The entire filing can be read at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Darrell-Ewing_et_al_v_Wayne_County_Sheriff__miedce-22-11453__0026.0-FIling-12-5-22.pdf
Darrell Ewing and jail detainees updated their federal lawsuit against jail officials Dec. 5, 2022 as above.
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